r/askcarguys

I’m planning to buy my first car soon and I’m curious what type of car people usually recommend for beginners 🚗

I am a 45 year old woman and I got a flat today.

I am very good at changing my own tires. My second car had been in an accident before I bought it, and I was perpetually loosing valve stems. I'd be on the side of the road once every month or two. I can change a tire in under 10 minutes. I called my husband and told him I had a flat. He offered to come up and change it for me. "Naw, I'll be done by the time you get here."

I got a flat today on a busy city street and pulled over into a parking lot to fix it. I was plainly visible to anyone driving down the road.

For the very first time in almost 30 years of driving, not a single person pulled over and offered to help. I'm not annoyed by this, I'm perfectly capable of doing it on my own, but I am a bit... perplexed?

I've had rednecks in F150s stop and help. Hippies in a cloud of pot smoke, and a carful of guys who spoke zero English. I've had very butch women offer to help a couple of times, and even a little five foot nothing blond girl stop one time. "Gotta help a sister out!"

But never no one.

So I've got to ask, do people not pull over and offer to help change a spare anymore? Granted, it's been about 10 years since I've had to change a tire on the side of the road, but still.

I will conceded that I was much hotter at 22 than I am at 45, but that can't be the only reason.

So i’m planning on getting a new car and I want to start doing maintenance on it by myself. I haven’t done it before but I know I’ll need to do oil every 10k miles, change the oil filter, and to rotate my tires every time.
I know how to check the air filter, tire depth, tire pressure, wipers, and washer fluid. But what else will I need to know how to do.
My main concern is how will I know if something is wrong, or if I did something wrong. I don’t want to put myself in a situation where I will end up costing myself more money than if I just take it to a reputable service center.

At an Exxon station in upstate New York the pump had a long yellow sticker and it said "heavy" in black letters. I didn't think anything of it, and the pumps had the usual options, so I pumped 87 unleaded like usual. A few hours later and I could tell my car was having trouble shifting gears, which could be a transmission issue.

It's a 2013 Jetta with 140,000 miles so maybe it's just time for transmission issues, but I'm wondering if "heavy" gasoline is something and I made a mistake, and I'm having no luck googling "heavy gasoline."

My father died a few weeks ago. I’m his only child (by birth) and have inherited his cars. One is a 2022 Kia Sorrento with 29K miles and an extended warranty. It’s whatever the highest trim package was at that time. This car is in very good condition. The other is a 2018 Mustang GT Convertible with just under 7K and is pretty much spotless. In typical old guy fashion, both cars were very well maintained. The main problem is that he lived in AZ while I live in the northeastern US.

I drive a 2015 Forester with 173K. It hasn’t had any major problems and it’s still running fine. For how much longer, I don’t know.

My initial thought is to sell both cars in AZ and, when it feels like the time is right, sell the Forester and buy something new. Maybe that’s soon, maybe not. It would be nice to sell the Forester before something major goes wrong with it. Honestly, I’d love to get some sort of hybrid as most of my driving has become fairly local. And I’d have enough money to not need a car payment, so I’m not worried about that. Thinking maybe a maverick, cx50, rav4 hybrid…not sure.

I am 95% sure I have a buyer for the Mustang. I might even have one for the Kia. I’ve done a little research and it looks like the Ford is sitting a little over $30K and the Kia a little under $30K. The Kia is pretty nice. I’m not sure I want to own it though. Plus, I’d have to drive it across the country. But maybe it makes sense to keep it?

I dunno. I’m hoping some of you chime in with some food for thought. I realize that, as far as the car thing goes, this is a “good problem” to have. Honestly, I just miss my dad a lot and I’m probably not thinking as clearly as I would normally. Thanks.

I’ve had my car since I first passed my driving test two years ago it’s a 2019 Hyundai ioniq and has done about 132k miles. I am not too sure if it’s better to start saving up for a new car yet I am bad at saving as well tbh but I also don’t want to get into debt either what are your signs when it’s time to get a new car?

so idk if other people do this but my family has a tradition where we name our cars.
i just got a small 2013 toyota prius and its silver. i can’t think of anything to name it sooooo.
its very special to me (duh) so i want it to have a good name :)

regular service maintenance i mean. no big shit like cv axles n tire rods n shit

My dad took the car somewhere to the car repaired and now when I accelerate the cars so loud and it doesn't really quiet down until I stop almost it really annoying and want to know if this noise is bad (probably gonna take it to a shop to have them check it out just wanted some opinions on what might be causing this) also the part replaced was the starter if I could add a video I would it almost sounds like a loud space ship if I had to describe it

I have a five year-old car that I would love to keep in pristine condition for as long as I have it, which I predict to be the next 10 years. I have heard a lot of bad things about drive-through car washes affecting your paint. I live in an apartment building and in an area where I have no access or ability to hand wash my car. My question is how long does it take to begin to see visible effects of the destruction that the drive-through car wash is doing to my paint. Does anybody have long term experience using these car washes that they might want to share? I appreciate the feedback.

Don't judge me too bad. I only know the basics. I have a 2012 Malibu that's in my garage with what I'm sure is a bad starter (we've replaced it before unfortunately). I replaced the dead battery after it sat for a year and in accessory mode, everything comes on (air, radio, etc) but clicks and cuts power when I try to turn it on.

Anyway: there isn't enough space to jack the car up in the garage. I need to pull it out to do so. But how Can I do this? Especially if I'm only one person.

I have a larger SUV (Yukon) with tow hooks and can go to harbor freight. I really want to get it running so I can sell the car I'm paying on.

Edit: It was a corroded negative terminal. Thanks guys.

Looking into buying a Gen 1 tacoma as a new daily driver. It's my dream truck and have been looking for decent deals on FB market for about 4 months and finally found two that I like.

Both have about 200k miles, one is beige for $9500 and the other is green for $8500 (I haven't negotiated prices or seen in person yet) and they seem to be in about the same condition with both having a v6, 4wd and automatic transmission. Both posts claim no issues other than some cosmetic dings/dents and that they run great. The beige one seems to have a better frame rust condition since the green doesn't have any pics of the frame (Idk if I'm allowed to add fb market links on here for the posts).

I know it's very dependent on the specific truck, but I wanted to ask for some input from a car centric community for their thoughts so I can make a more informed decision. Since it's a ~25 year old vehicle, how would it be to daily drive in terms of maintenance, reliability and availability of replacement parts? Thoughts on these prices for a Gen 1 tacoma? Since my car right now is old but works (09 vw rabbit), this kind of becomes a "the devil you know vs the devil you don't" situation, so I'm looking for some input to expose my potential blind spots. Thanks in advance!

Both same engine. Both FWD. Trax has 10k miles and Trailblazer has 28k miles. Trailblazer is 4k cheaper. Where I'm stuck is the Trax is automatic and the Trailblazer is CVT. I keep reading awful things about CVT. But I like the compactness of the Trailblazer. (I'm replacing a 2017 Trax.) Which would you choose and why? And I do know many would say neither, but if you had to lol

Trying to make space in a standard 2 car garage and looking at storage lifts. Not sure what’s overkill vs actually useful. What are people running at home?

I drive a corolla 2009 base model.

I had front end accident this winter. I had to get new radiator, support, condenser and fan. My car is working just like it used to before.. but the only issue is the ac wont work. The place where i got it fixed is cheaper than other shops. But they don’t do a very thorough job so i don’t want to go back there and i don’t have much money to spend on the car.

Just wondering if it could be that they didn’t fill refrigerant after the fix. But what could be any other problems.

Hey, have a problem. My car (2015 Chevy Trax) alternator is likely going bad. Whenever I go above 4k RPM, my red battery light flicks on. Go back down, it goes away. I drove about 1,000 miles this past weekend for work and noticed it then. (Headlights dimming above 4k, and then the battery light)

I got the battery replaced (which wasn’t the problem but it was old anyways) but the problem persisted, so I’m inclined to say it’s the alternator. Unfortunately, my job is in the mountains, and about 50ish miles from a mechanic. I’ve driven into town with this once (dumb I know) with no issue. Realistically I’ll be able to take it into town next Tuesday ish, but then, will it start? And if it does, am I going to lose all my power and end up going into a tree? Thanks guys.

I’m buying my first car (used). I know absolutely nothing about them. Went to check out a 2005 Ford Escape today and it appeared to have oil leaks in a few different spots on the underbelly.

My brother who was with me took some photos of these potentially problematic leak zones but couldn’t tell me what the problem could potentially be.

Are these a dealbreaker in a 4000$ purchase?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated 🙏